Tapping the reserve has been on the table since the European Union imposed a ban on Iranian oil earlier this year. Oil prices jumped in the past week amid fears that Israel will launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, the United Nations has basically thrown in the towel on Syria, which could have broad geo-political implications in the oil-rich Middle East.

What do all these factors have in common? None of them are really new. Oil markets have been frothy for much of the year, roiled by political uncertainty. While a mid-summer increase in pump prices is unusual, the administration’s bigger concern is the election in November. Rising gasoline prices aren’t an incumbent’s friend.

Obama wouldn’t be the first president to tap the reserve to offset what amounts to rather routine price fluctuations. His two predecessors did the same thing, with mixed results. Four releases in the past eight years were followed by higher pump prices, and two releases let to lower ones, Bloomberg News reported. Even those lower prices, though, were short-lived.

The current administration released oil from the reserves last year in response to the Arab Spring uprisings in Libya. And now, a year later, it’s talking about it again. Maybe that provides a political solution, but it ignores the purpose of the reserve. It isn’t really a “strategic” reserve if releases become a routine rite of summer. The reserve exists to offset major disruptions in supply, not to provide a political hedge against unpopular prices.

As I noted last year, if releasing the oil doesn’t succeed in lowering prices, it can create a scenario in which we find ourselves having to pay more to replenish the reserves. Meanwhile, if it does lower prices, it doesn’t just help motorists in the U.S. It affects prices globally. As University of Houston energy expert Michael Economides told me at the time, that allows countries like China to take advantage of the lower prices and replenish their own reserves at a bargain.

That’s a big price to pay for easing the late summer angst of U.S. motorists and scoring a short-term political gain.